Countermeasures  those spoilers!
by susieq666
Summary: Just my take on some of the spoilers for 10.01. If you don't like spoilers, don't read. Needed to get this out of my system.
1. Chapter 1

COUNTERMEASURES - THOSE SPOILERS!

(This is an unresolved snippet of what might happen in 10.01. It contains some of the spoilers we've been given - not all. I just had to get it out of my system.)

Eric watched the officers bundle Randy North into the patrol car, and turned back towards Horatio. Expecting him to be right behind him, he was shocked that his boss was still on one knee, at the spot where they'd taken North. He ran back to him…

It was only six hours earlier that Eric had arrived at the quay, to a scene at first totally mystifying. Two empty Hummers, no one around, Natalia's gun on the ground. Then blood, quite a lot, and Horatio's 9mm… and his jacket, the lining blood-stained.

"H! Nat!" he called frantically, aware that this could be an ambush, but, at that moment, not caring.

He heard a faint female voice answering him, peered over the rail and saw… he wasn't sure what he saw… Natalia and Horatio in the water, trying to reach the slipway. In trouble. He wasn't sure who was pulling whom.

He ran down to the water's edge, waded in, and hauled them both out. Horatio was a semi-conscious heap at his feet, shaking with cold and shock, blood, mixing with water, streaming down the slip into the sea. Eric dropped to his knees beside him.

He glanced at Natalia, who was kneeling, coughing. "Are you hurt?" At her brief shake of the head, he thrust his phone at her. "Get him some help, now!" If he took in that she was as white and shocked as Horatio, it didn't register.

He rolled his boss over, pulled the shirt out of his waistband, and found the wound… wounds… It looked like a through-and-through. Into the abdomen, but out through his side. It flashed through his mind, that H's excess weight, far from endangering his health, might just have helped him. But he was bleeding heavily. Eric ripped his own shirt off, over his head, and used it, and both hands, to try to stem the blood-flow.

Horatio groaned. His eyes flickered open and he murmured "Natalia?"

"She's OK. She's here. Who did this?"

"North. He… Oh God…" The pain took him again and he twisted away from Eric's hands.

"Lie still! There's help coming."

He hadn't heard Calleigh arrive, but she was there. "Is he…?"

"Shot. Bleeding. See to Nat."

"What happened?"

"No idea."

Calleigh went to attend to the trembling, weeping Natalia.

"What happened?" she asked again.

Natalia explained, as best she could, adding bleakly, " I led him right into a trap."

"He'll forgive you," Calleigh said soothingly.

Eric glanced up, thinking, 'but I might not'. Horatio seemed to be losing consciousness. "Where's that goddamn ambulance?"

Help came quickly, and Eric and Calleigh saw their two injured colleagues into the vehicle.

"Do you want to go with him?" Calleigh asked.

"Yes, but we need to see what happened here…" Eric looked round, stunned. "At least collect their firearms and stuff…"

"Do that. Tape the scene. Then go to the hospital." She knew how Eric felt about his boss and brother-in-law. In fact, she had, on occasions, felt like the least important part in an emotional triangle. Anyway, she knew Eric would never be able to concentrate on a crime scene, with Horatio in his current state.

As Eric gathered up the guns, and Horatio's jacket, Calleigh was on her cell, taking charge as was her right as H's deputy, and summoning Ryan, Frank, and anyone else she thought might be useful.

At the hospital, the events became clearer. While the doctors worked on Horatio, Eric talked to Natalia, who, though deeply shocked and with a mild concussion, was uninjured.

"He came in after me," she said with amazement. "Shot… and he came in after me."

"That's H," Eric said ruefully. "Though the cold water probably numbed him a bit and slowed the bleeding."

"How is he?"

"Don't know yet."

"Come and tell me."

Eric nodded, left her, and called to discuss the details he had learned with Frank.

"We'll get him." The big Texan was angry "Oh boy, will we get him!"

The doctor was optimistic when Eric went back to Horatio. He addressed the CSI as they stood either side of their prone patient.

"It's a through-and-through, and possibly just a bullet fragment. No internal organ damage. He's been lucky."

"If getting shot is lucky…"

Horatio murmured, "Talk to me."

"Oh, you're back with us, are you?" Eric smiled at him.

"Always was, bro…"

"Actually," the doctor said, "you weren't. But you're going to be OK. You need to rest, while your body makes up the blood loss, and there's a risk of infection, so I'm putting you on strong antibiotics. I'll clean you up and stitch you now… And," He looked at Horatio's face, "find you some pain relief."

For two hours, Eric sat beside him, leaving Calleigh and Frank to co-ordinate the search for North. His boss seemed to doze, giving in, for a while, to his body's needs. Only for a while though. As a nurse came to remove the canula from his arm, Horatio focussed on Eric, and said pointedly, "Why aren't you out catching North?"

"Because Calleigh's in charge, and there are plenty of people doing just that."

"Are my clothes here?"

"Yes… All soaking wet."

"Do something for me?"

"Of course."

"Go to my apartment and get me some fresh stuff."

"You're not thinking of discharging yourself?"

"Not thinking. Doing. I'm OK. Bit sore, but I need to be doing something."

"H, you're mad!"

"Will you fetch my clothes? Or do I ask someone else?"

Eric sighed. Arguing with H was totally pointless. "All right. Rest while I'm gone."

He took the keys from his boss's jacket and drove to the apartment, returning, as slowly as he dared, with suit, shirt, underwear, even shoes. He found Horatio on his feet, coming back from visiting Natalia. Less than dignified in a hospital gown, he was pale, limping, moving slowly, and with his hand over his side.

Eric leapt to help him sit on the bed. "How are you?"

"Weaker than I'd like. But OK."

As both he and the doctors failed to make Horatio see sense, within half an hour, Eric drove him back to the lab. His gun, badge, and even his ID had survived, and he looked… normal, if pale. Eric was only too conscious that he wasn't. He had barely made it to the car, had to be helped into it, and winced every time the car hit a bump. Holstering the gun, directly over his wounded side, had been painful to watch.

Well, they had caught Randy North easily - the man was stupidly predictable. It was H himself who had taken him down, with a hefty punch in the face. Eric marvelled that he had the strength, but assumed an adrenalin-rush at the critical point had helped.

But he'd hurt himself. As Eric reached his side, he was holding the wound, fresh blood seeping through his fingers.

"What have you done?"

"Torn a stitch. Felt it go…" Horatio carefully took his hand away, and cautiously reholstered his gun. "Help me up."


	2. Chapter 2

COUNTERMEASURES 2

"H, for God's sake!" Eric suffered a moment of complete exasperation. Oh, he loved and admired his boss, was sometimes in awe of his ability to deal with adversity, but on occasions - and this was one such - infuriated by the man's complete denial that anything could stop him or slow him down. It was how he was. The legendary 'superman' act wasn't, he knew, an act at all. It was simply the way he operated. Something needed to be done, he'd do it. If it hurt, well, it did. If it was risky, then he'd take the risk - rather him than someone else…

Now Eric helped him to his feet and felt him stagger. He went to put an arm round him, but Horatio shrugged him off. "Don't."

Eric lowered his voice. "You're going to embarrass yourself far more if you pass out in the middle of the plaza…"

"I'm not going to pass out!" Horatio snapped. "I'm just a bit dizzy… My legs are shaky…"

"Which is a precursor to passing out," Eric snapped back at him. "Sit down."

He pulled one of the plastic chairs forward, and virtually pushed his boss into it. Whatever he said, it was only too clear to Eric that walking as far as the Hummer, some fifty yards away, was out of the question. Weak from loss of blood, no longer buoyed up by the hunt for North, the man was fading, fast. Now Eric was torn. He could fetch the car, but that meant leaving H. And where he was sitting was very public…

He straightened up, and looked round. With relief, he saw a patrolman he knew slightly, and called him over.

"Ramirez, isn't it?" He handed him a set of keys. "My Hummer's parked behind those shops. Will you bring it over here?" The patrolman glanced at Horatio, and frowned, about to ask questions. "Just do it, please."

He turned back to Horatio, and his tone softened as he saw a ghost-white face, with a dew of sweat on the forehead. "Take a few deep breaths…"

H's voice had also lost any trace of temper. "God, I'm sorry, Eric."

"No problem, boss… We'll sort it." He was thinking, 'just don't keel over in the next five minutes,' but all he said was, "Someone's fetching the car." He resisted the urge to put his hand on his boss's shoulder.

It seemed a long wait, though in fact it was only a few minutes before the Hummer was parked nearby, engine running.

"OK, H?"

"Yep. Give me your arm."

As discreetly as he could, Eric helped Horatio first to his feet, then into the passenger seat, closing the door on him. He ran round to the driver's side, got in and closed that door too. He adjusted the air-conditioning, then looked sympathetically at his passenger.

"Thought I was going to lose you there…"

"Not quite." Horatio was lying back in the seat, and looked at his junior with a hint of a smile, and a faint trace of embarrassment. "Close…"

"How do you feel? And don't say OK…"

"Terrible."

Eric raised his eyebrows. "Go on… Are you in pain?"

"Nothing I can't handle. It's not that… Just… dizzy… and nauseous…"

"Hospital then?"

"I don't think so. Maybe home."

"What about your stitches?"

Horatio pulled his shirt up, and gingerly peeled back the blood-stained dressing. There was a trickle of fresh blood, but not much. "One stitch. Not worth a hospital visit." He pressed the dressing carefully back into place. "I think I need to rest."

Eric laughed.

"What's funny?"

"That's quite an admission, from you." Then his face straightened. "I'd be much happier to see you back in hospital. You're really not well."

"I'll do, Eric. I just lost a bit of blood… Bit more than I thought, possibly."

Eric sighed. "I'm not going to argue with you. I'll take you where you want…"

"Then home." He closed his eyes.

"Don't throw up in my car, will you?"

"Promise."

He seemed better, out of public view, as Eric drove him carefully home. Once there, ignoring the inevitable protests, Eric saw him as far as his bedroom, before returning to work.

Once there, he was unsurprised to find that they were 'saving' Randy North for Horatio.

"He's in solitary," Frank announced, with some satisfaction. "Thought H would want to do the interview. Though I'd happily do it myself…"

"He'll have to stew for today. I've just taken H home. He's out on his feet."

"Hardly surprising. Skipping hospital when you've had a bullet in the guts is pretty extreme, even for him."

"I think he might have realised that."

Calleigh joined them. "So how is he?"

Eric wasn't going to say how nearly he'd had an unconscious Horatio on his hands. Instead he said, "Bit fragile. He's accepted he's got to rest."

Frank chuckled. "Good God - he _must _be feeling rough!" He rubbed his hands together. "Perhaps I'll go and see our Randy…"

Calleigh caught Eric's eye and shrugged.


	3. Chapter 3

(This is an apology to those of you who've been reading this, especially those who have posted appreciative comments, and asked for more. Thank you! But I think I have to stop this one. I was only playing around with the spoilers. I don't want to write the episode. I probably shouldn't have posted at all, since it's not really a story. I was being self-indulgent - can't stay away from an injured Horatio, and his relationship with Eric.

So, sorry guys, I'm halting this one. I'll be back, no doubt hurting H again. I love the man, I really do….)


End file.
